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home reno

As promised, I wanted to share the results of our #QACottage upstairs unit gut job. I’ll start with the bathroom.

I’m even more excited to dig into the reveal of this unit, as opposed to the lower unit, because we put a lot of extra TLC (and expense) into it, since we thought we were going to live there with our baby girl for the next few years.

Here is the bathroom BEFORE:

I should note that you had to enter it through the master, and it is/was the only restroom in the unit. Glad those days are over! The most significant change we made was to move the door from the bedroom wall to the kitchen wall and widen it a touch.

To set the mood, let me share with you some inspiration images. I was kind of going for a French farmhouse vibe, with a combination of black and white with rustic wood and yellow pops. I know, I’m the only one doing farmhouse. I was then planning to add plants and art, but as mentioned in my last post, we rented out the place before I got to fully zhush.

Without further ado … the inspiration images.

– M O O D –

(click picture for source!)

– N A R R O W I N G I T D O W N –

I had my heart set on a double-faucet vintage trough sink. The reasons are aesthetic as well as practical. We didn’t have enough width in the bathroom for a double vanity, but my marriage depended on that extra source of water before bed each night.

I love the exposed basin of the trough sink, but I knew I needed all the storage I could get. I set out to find a cool rustic wood base that could also have storage.

Instead of checkered floors, I did a linen-finish tile with a checkered rug that I could take with me whenever we moved.

Lighting:

I really wanted hanging pendant lights on each side of the mirror, but because of the proximity to the shower, it would’ve been an electrocution hazard. And trust me, I was willing to risk it, but Tristan reminded me that tenants could sue us, which didn’t sound so great.

Spoiler alert: I probably will not get to do hanging pendants until house after our new one we just bought. UG! I have cried real tears over this. I will do a dedicated post about all of my very favorite pendant light bathrooms, which I think will help with the grieving process.

Shower Curtain:

Our clawfoot tub was just BEGGING for this stunning shower curtain that has been floating around Pinterest since its early years –

Now that the groundwork has been laid, I can’t wait to show you how it all turned out! Come on back for the full reveal :).

Days of the week are mostly meaningless to me, now that I’m on maternity leave.

However on Saturday, Tristan and I plus baby had our first family outing that wasn’t home renovation related! I had the BEST time. We searched for estate sales and garage sales, had lunch, came home and napped … is this what life can be?

It was probably one of the very first family outings since Tristan and I have known each other. On weekends we weren’t working on the house, we typically had friend or family plans. Very excited for more family days this summer :).

I’m also very excited to introduce you to another new addition in our lives.

Meet our new #BallardHomeBase

It’s in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, where I lived before I met Tristan, and is around 2,200 square feet with 4 BR / 3 BA. I call it “home base” because it’s our home for the indefinite future – we may buy other properties to renovate and rent out, but this one’s for us :).

The garage has been converted into a studio unit that is currently rented out by our friend Val. There’s a real fenced yard and en suite bathroom – two rarities in Seattle! And don’t even get me started on the sunroom.

___

One question we’ve received a lot: “I can’t believe you moved! Are you bummed that you just finished a two year long renovation, and you don’t even get to enjoy your new space?”

The answer is no.

The housing market here is bonkers, and we’re thrilled to be out of the rat race.

Tristan is on Redfin as a hobby several times a day (kind of like how some mindlessly scroll through Facebook). We’d tour houses or make offers from time to time as we’d come across a Forever Home potential.

To finally have “won” a house, and know that we won’t have to drop everything and quickly tour a house, make an offer, make sure financing is approved, and then ultimately lose out to foreign all-cash investors – while juggling a newborn – feels FANTASTIC. The pros of moving definitely outweigh the cons.

I do feel a teeny bit bummed because I don’t have fully staged AFTER photos of our Queen Anne Cottage to share.

We lived upstairs for a few weeks and moved out before I had art on the walls or all of my decor pieces in place. So can you just use your imagination when I say so? And per usual, I have TONS of inspiration photos to show you to help along the way. 🙂

I’ll get full house tours up of each house on the blog at some point but the first room I’ll share is the QA Cottage Bathroom! Stay tuned.

Hi Folks! It’s been a busy month for le petit Rynning family, partially because of our mission trip to Mexico and partially because we just bought a house! We feel so blessed and humbled by this home, especially after building small homes in Mexico without plumbing or electricity for families in need – quite the contrast. I will share more on that amazing trip in a later post.

Here is our little bungalow in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle.

Here are the For Sale pictures with staged furniture – they give you a better idea of the space and scale.

Here are some house pics “in the nude,” as we were just about to move in:

MASTER BEDROOM

Does everyone see the size of that closet?! Yeesh. Tristan and I didn’t even try to share it.

“DINING” ROOM (TBD if it will actually fit our kitchen table)

2ND BEDROOM

LIVING ROOM

Here’s a wide angle looking towards the front door:

And here’s a shot looking away from the front door.

If you look really hard, you can actually see that my topiaries have already found a new home by the sides of our kitchen sink! I know you were all concerned.

LAUNDRY ROOM

Oh, sweet ecstasy! I cannot believe I finally have my own washer/dryer.

Our place is actually a duplex, but the downstairs isn’t exactly livable as is. Tristan’s been hard at work demo-ing the downstairs so that we can get renters in. It’s very manly work and I’ve been so impressed by him.

This renovation is a good exercise for me because I won’t be able to immediately decorate, like I usually can. We hope to redo the upstairs floors and walls as soon as the downstairs is done, so we aren’t even taking some of our furniture out of storage or hanging things up on the walls. Eek! #mustnest #buthow

UNIT 2 (around behind the house)

Here’s the door to the downstairs:

Here are some interior shots from before the demo.

MASTER BEDROOM

OFFICE (this will likely turn into a kitchen nook)

I wish you could all experience the smell of the carpet. Time will tell, but the most dramatic before and after transformation may just be the aroma.

KITCHEN

LIVING ROOM

LAUNDRY ROOM

BATHROOM

We have fairly traditional gender roles in this household. The morning after we moved in, Tristan was ripping out carpet and flooring in the basement. Meanwhile, I was organizing the kitchen.

Though the upstairs is in a lot better shape than the downstairs, we both look forward to renovating that next. Tristan purchased a home before we got married and remodeled that, which we currently have renters living in. He’s been itching to smell the sawdust once again. Here are his plumbing plans – so advanced :).

This blog was originally designed to incorporate Tristan’s interests as well as mine, and this house project will be the perfect way for you all to get to know a little bit more of what makes Tristan tick! We’ll be documenting our progress and sharing photos, of course.

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I’m so excited to share the first AFTER photos of our upstairs unit in the Queen Anne Cottage … tempered slightly by the fact that we moved before the unit was fully staged, and these snapshots are pretty bad. As a reminder, these were the key inspirational images (full inspo post here): Here’s […]

Hi folks! As promised, I wanted to share the results of our #QACottage upstairs unit gut job. I’ll start with the bathroom. I’m even more excited to dig into the reveal of this unit, as opposed to the lower unit, because we put a lot of extra TLC (and expense) into it, since we thought […]

Happy Monday, everyone! Days of the week are mostly meaningless to me, now that I’m on maternity leave. However on Saturday, Tristan and I plus baby had our first family outing that wasn’t home renovation related! I had the BEST time. We searched for estate sales and garage sales, had lunch, came home and napped […]